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Topic: Vvukkrauur (Read 34406 times)

Update! I told you I would! Remember, this update is unrelated to the poll, so keep voting!

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Mountain Cliffs

The mountain vvukkrauur live in a mountainous cliff region. These mountains are the remnants of long extinct volcanoes, leaving mostly volcanic rock behind. The seasons are much more apparent in this region, with nothing to prevent natures elements from falling to the ground. Because it's so exposed, the extremes in temperature vary greatly depending on the time of year. The vvukkrauur that live there tent to stay in the middle part of the mountains, too high and there is too thin and cold, too low and there are larger predators and sweltering heat in the summer.

Nutcrushers are small animals with large powerful beaks for crushing hard nuts. Though their eyesight isn't very strong, they have a keen sense of smell, which they use to sniff out ripe sticky nuts. Once they have found one, they will grab it with their two front paws, using their hind legs to hold them steady, and bring the nut to their beaks and crush it. With their tongues, they will lick all the delicious juices within. In the process of eating, the sticky seeds on the outside of of the shell get smeared all over their beaks. After licking the shell clean, they will go find a place where they can rub the sticky seeds off, thus spreading their seeds around the rocks. While there favorite food are sticky nuts, they will also eat smaller nuts and berries to supplement their diets. Largely solitary, they will seek out a mate once a year and make their nests in the many crevices within the rock. Their brightly colored beaks are colored in the same colors of the sticky nuts, and emit a pheromone very similar to the sticky nut scent, attracting mates in a similar manner to when they hunt for food.

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Sticky nut

The sticky nut, so named for it's large, sticky, hard fruit, is the staple diet of the nutcrusher. The fruit emits a signature scent, which attracts nutcrushers. They will seek it out and crush it with their beaks. Then, with their tongues, they will lick all the delicious juices within. In the process of eating, the sticky seeds on the outside of of the shell will get smeared all over their beaks. After licking the shell clean, they will go find a place where they can rub the sticky seeds off, thus spreading their seeds around the rocks. Once stuck to the rocks, it will begin to grow, eventually producing a single fruit. Once the fruit is eaten, it won't grow another until the following year.

Rock nibblers live in the mountainous range of the mountain vvukkrauur. They stand about 1.3 m tall and walk on their three hind legs. The toes have adapted to living in the rough, volcanic cliffs of the mountain region. This is more a case of convergent evolution though, because they share only distant genetic heritage with the vvukkrauur. They are strict herbivores and spend nearly all of their day eating. During the winter, their diet consists almost entirely of a crusty, lichen-like plant that lives on the rocks beneath the snow, but in the winter they delight in eating their favorite food, the longfrond. Their appearance changes drastically from season to season; in the summer, they look as pictured above, but in the winter, they grow feathery protrusions all over their body, which are grayish-white in color. They lose their coat every summer when the snow start to melt. They have a strong sense of smell which they use for sniffing out the lichen-like plant and for finding mates. In the winter, they live a mostly solitary lifestyle, but when the snow starts to melt, they seek out a mate, with whom they will spend the rest of the summer, helping to rear their young. Similar to all other creatures, rock nibblers are also triple hermaphroditic, but there is little discernible difference between genders.

Longfrond

The longfrond is a small plant that grows among the cliff of the mountainous range of mountain vvukkrauur. The highly irregular leaves grow every year from the same shallow root system. They reproduce with tiny spores on their leaves. Rock nibblers eat the leaves, spores included, then excrete them elsewhere, where a new plant will grow. The plants are quite resilient, and can survive being eaten right down to a nub.